Plath Official Outlines European Intelligence Challenges

The morning session of Plath Intelligence Day provided unique insights about the intelligence challenges facing European nations. Nico Scharfe, managing partner at Plath, introduced the day's two themes – multi-domain autonomous intelligence and real-time intelligence, data fusion and adaptation – to nearly 600 attendees.

Scharfe said Europe's intelligence challenges are shaped by three main factors influencing both government intelligence organizations and industry. "First, we have to reinvent ourselves," he said. The changes happening on the battlefield are so dynamic, he explained, that governments and industry must accelerate the adoption of new standards and develop new acquisition methods to rapidly field new equipment. Scharfe emphasized the importance of results and not intentions. "The most important thing is that the forces in the field get the new equipment and that it's not just 'planning' new equipment," he said. The second factor Scharfe identified is that governments must buy capabilities "more intelligently." He said that budgets are not a problem and that required funding is available. "But there's a big threat that we are buying more of the old stuff," he explained, "especially in the field of intelligence. I think with the dynamic around us, it's a very big danger if we buy things we bought or designed 20 years ago, again. So we have to buy more intelligently [those] new things which help us to adapt to the new challenges."

The third factor Scharfe identified is the need to cooperate. "There's no way to do it alone," he said. "We have to think in strategic foresight and partnerships to work together. And this does not only mean the industry, but also the user side. You cannot counter the challenges we have alone."

Scharfe then identified six key developments that are important to track. "First, electronic warfare is on everybody's list. Information superiority is the key to success – or also denying it," he said.

The second key development is the growing use of unmanned systems. Third, he said, with the rise of unmanned platforms, "the question is we are getting much more data to [and from] more sensors on more platforms, so we have to automate all our processes as fast as we can to be more effective with the data we are receiving."

Fourth, Scharfe expained, the government customers want more sensors. "The times are over where we had one big platform with one big sensor. Customers want to have more sensors, more data, and more platforms in action. This what we call 'more sensor for the buck.'"

Fifth is the customer wishes to have SIGINT solutions that are less proprietary and easily upgraded. "This means that he wants to have a design…that he can adapt to the new challenges quickly and doesn't have to wait till the vendor is willing to do this. This means open interfaces, possibilities to plug and play, new ways to meet challenges with existing platforms," he explained.

The sixth development is the blurring line between SIGINT collected for military needs and SIGINT collected for homeland security applications. He said, "We are very often using the same tools, especially in the field of intelligence" against the same threats and targets. "So that is something where we can, if we move together, [also] work faster."

– JED Staff